Definitions and explanations

Floating has turned out to be the most popular keyword for my subject but that may be because it has many meanings, So I'm excluding the debris found by round the world sailors, and the floating point arithmetic thing and everything to do with going public on the stock exchange. This blog is about floating in a float tank. I wish the word tank could be avoided but it's so common I have to use it.

What is floating? Floating is for people, most of us will float in water if we keep really still although a small percentage will sink. To make floating easier just add salt to the water and you have sea water which has a significantly higher density than pure water, but not really enough unless you consider the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea is a sink from which there are no ways out except by evaporation, so it has become very salty with many salts though it's mostly common salt, sodium chloride. Everyone knows you can float reading a newspaper in the Dead Sea.

What is Floating-2? If you put salt in a tub of water and heat it to a comfortable temperature, and if the tub is big enough that you don't touch the sides, then you can float easily without going to the Dead Sea. The temperature should be just right, I reckon 35.4 Celcius which is 95.7 Fahrenheit. However I know that humans vary in their core temperature by as much as a degree C but still that's about the right warmth. Close off the wind with a cover, so that you can relax and you have a float tank. You have a wonderful tool to use for many enlivening tasks.

Why would you want to float?

Here we have a kind of mystery. Floating like this in warm water is so pleasant and has so many benefits, but why? Michael Hutchinson in his book "The book of floating", one of the very few books on the subject, has seven explanations. But let's compare it with idling in bed or lazing in the sun, very similar and related relaxations. Doing nothing and feeling warm just feels good and perhaps it's silly to wonder why. Floating has a couple of important points in its favour.

First point contact.

The water supports you by applying pressure all over your immersed skin. The maximum pressure will be at the lowest point, about 25 cm (10 inches) below the surface. This pressure is still lower than normal blood pressure and that's important. In a normal bed the contact pressure is enough to overcome blood pressure so just there, the blood is squeezed away. The result is that we need to move regularly during sleep to allow the blood to return to that part of the skin. That needs a control system and nerve and muscle activity.

Second point heat

A bed may be warm but you are still providing the heat by muscle action and biological processes. In a float tank that perfect temperature allows some heat loss from your core processes of staying alive but there is no need for muscle action.

So the result is your body relaxes. So what?

This is the amazing part. I don't know how this evolved in humans, but the fact is in a floating position in the warm water you really, really relax. You relax so much that unexpected things happen to you. It feels so good for a start. Your brain realises that postural control is longer required. That apparently normally occupies a large part of the brain and takes energy. Your brain also relaxes in a special way. We know this from the study of brain waves. These electrical signals, measured as potentials (voltages) on the scalp, are alternating at various frequencies which can be correlated with activities. They are grouped into bands of frequencies and one band is called theta. Theta brain waves are correlated with profound relaxation as achieved by skilled meditators for example.

That's not all, the brain releases endorphins in profound relaxation. Endorphins are natural pain killers, very powerful ones in fact. Floating brings pain relief and this can be a near miracle for some sufferers. Chronic pain is not a very helpful feature of our lives. Once pain has warned, or prevented further damage (you pull back without thinking when acute pain strikes) what purpose does it serve? It's quite natural that the body should have a way to turn off pain when it's not required, how sad that it does not always work or that we cannot just choose when to turn it off. These effects, the release of endorphins are not under our conscious control but if we make the circumstances suitable, the latent body abilities kick in.

What Else?

Stress is what else. Stress is really another mystery and that word stress covers way too many things. One of the common definitions is that unwanted stress is not from hard work or hard problems (actually the opposite usually) but from a feeling of lack of control. Most people enjoy solving problems. But having a problem that is outside your control is stressful and can be measured as perceived stress in a questionaire. So what causes this kind of unpleasant stress? Working for an unfair boss or system that you cannot escape, not having the money you need to buy food, not being able to conceive, trying to find the right home, being in a difficult relationship, being lonely, there are plenty of stressors.

Now if a situation is outside your control, it may be bad but why does it generate this stress? Stress like pain can outlive its usefulness for survival. In other words a lot of stress which blights peoples lives should be called "perceived stress". To just give one example getting stressed out about not being able to conceive is not helpful at all. In fact studies have shown that it further reduces your chances, it's counterproductive.

The wonder is that floating relieves stress. Obviously it doesn't make problems go away but it does relieve stress about those problems and often that is enough to see the way out. It's enough to get a good night's sleep after worry has caused sleepless nights. Insomnia is itself a stress, a vicious circle of stress when sleep is so necessary to health.

Where can I float? float center finder